The ‘Jesus’ revered by Muslims is not the same Jesus worshipped by Christians as God
1,400 years ago, the founder of Islam, Muhammad seemed to have 'hijacked' Jesus from the gospels, demoted him to prophet, and placed him in the Koran. Christianity was Islam’s main competition at the time, and Muhammad seems to have reasoned that it was better to co-opt Jesus than to denounce him.
Jump ahead 1400 years, and we find that some Muslims are still manipulating the figure of Jesus for political and religious purposes. For example, Muslims in the West Bank have for several years been proclaiming that Jesus was the “first Palestinian.” They claim, moreover, that when Israelis place restrictions on Palestinians, “Jesus is being crucified again.”
The latest twist on that story is that Jesus was also the first martyr for Islam. Tawfiq Tirawi, a senior member of the Palestinian Authority posted the following on his Facebook page: This is blessed Christmas, the birthday of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, the first Palestinian and the first Shahid (Islamic Martyr).
I bring this up (see original article) because many Christians have only a hazy understanding of the place of Jesus in Islam and some are completely unaware that Jesus does have a place in Islam.
